System and method for secure communications based on locally stored values

This disclosure provides a system and method for secure communications. The method can enable secure machine-to-machine communications within discrete security groups having two or more communication nodes using a zero knowledge authentication process and related cryptography. A first node in the security group can encrypt payload data using a synchronized data set (SDS) known to the member nodes of the security group. The SDS can have a seed. A second node in the security group can decrypt the payload data using the seed. The seed can be provisioned within each node of the security group. The seed can also be provided or changed by a node or another entity to modify the security group membership. Member nodes of the security group can be added or removed as needed. Nodes not having the SDS cannot communicate securely with member nodes.